5 Revolutionary Roman Writers

Five of my favourite Latin authors

 Today I'm going to talk about five of my favourite Latin authors, especially ones that I think have been super influential to ancient and modern culture.

1. Virgil

Perhaps best known as the Roman answer to Homer, Virgil is one of the most influential writers that we can study today.

Beautiful Bucolics

First of all (before he got “famous”, I suppose) he was writing bucolic poetry. That's poetry about the countryside, and being a farmer, and falling in love in the country. These collections of poems are Eclogues and Georgics, and both of them are fantastic.

There are wonderful descriptions and sensory imagery of the countryside in Italy, and it really brings to life what it was like to be in that place and time.

Verbose Verse

He's also responsible for one of the most amazing pieces, in my opinion, of Roman literature that we have today, The Aeneid. This is his epic poem which spans almost 10,000 lines of Latin poetry to write the story of Aeneas.

As the adjective suggests, it’s full of drama, intrigue, and of course vengeful gods! It's about a refugee prince (Aeneas) from the Trojan war travelling to Italy with the stragglers that remain of the Trojans, to found what is going to become the Roman race. So it's very influential for the Romans when they were thinking about their own mythic history.

But it's also important for us, firstly for being a cracking narrative, but especially for understanding Augustan propaganda.

Masterful Messaging

So the first emperor, Augustus, had a man called Maecenas on his side, who was the patron of many poets. And Virgil was one of those poets. That means that Maecenas would ask him to show support to the emperor through his poetry. Virgil and others were supposed to help to give the message that the emperor wanted to give.

Whether or not the Aeneid is pro- or anti-Augustan is a subject of many long and heated debates which I do not have the word count for in this post.

But actually Virgil died before he finished it and he asked for it to be burnt on his deathbed. Thank goodness no one listened to him because we would not have one of my favourite, favourite pieces of Latin text, the Aeneid.

So with the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid, personally I think Virgil is one of the most influential writers of all time, but especially of the Roman period.

2. Cicero

He had to make an appearance really!

Rehearsed Rhetoric

Cicero is known for his incredible legal speeches in the courts of Rome. He was a fantastic orator, a fantastic speaker and one of the best lawyers in Rome, especially after he defeated a guy called Hortensius, who was the best lawyer in Rome at the time. And Cicero really became the person that you would want on your side if you were being tried for any misdemeanours that you may or may not have committed.

Literary Letters

He was also a prolific letter writer, and we have access to many of his letters because he wrote them to be published. They are fascinating because they tell us about the life of a Roman governing a province. They also tell us about the political tensions that are going on in Rome at the time of his life, which is one of the most interesting periods: the rise - and fall, I suppose - of the First Triumvirate, and therefore of the Republic of Rome itself.

And he's also talking to some of his best friends in these letters, so they’re giving us a really interesting insight into everyday life.

Political Prowess

But of course for Cicero he's also of massive political importance, which is absolutely fascinating. He was a top politician of his day, and did some quite controversial things during his consulship. His opinions are very strong, and he is not afraid to voice them, especially on some of the people that he's prosecuting.

In his in Verrem, “against Verres”, one of his most famous legal speeches, he rails against a governor. He accuses him of bribery, violence, and sexual impropriety.

His Philippics against Mark Antony are an absolutely savage character assassination. My students love it. He uses the most wild accusations to discredit Mark Antony and it is masterful.

So Cicero is definitely up there on my list of revolutionary Roman writers.

Some of my students think he is slightly too critical, too full of himself, and they think his sentences can run slightly long. Can you see that I'm influenced immensely by Cicero? Yes you can because my sentences are far too long. But let's move on.

3. Caesar

Number three has to be Julius Caesar. I don't think I could have not included him!

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The reason, for me, is that he wrote in language that people could understand. Never mind Cicero with his long highfalutin sentences! Caesar writes in clear, concise, short sentences. The texts themselves are quite long, but people can understand the sentences. So he's not necessarily writing for the super high class. He's almost writing for the middle class, who have a little bit of time on their hands, or the upper middle class, which gave him massive political support amongst the people of Rome.

Military Might

The subject of lots of his texts are his wars. The people of Rome loved reading about his military campaigns because they could understand what he was doing while he was away from Rome. He was giving it to them straight, and they feel like he is writing to them.

He goes into so much depth about war, especially his own wars with Pompey the Great. I also really like that he refers to himself in the third person! He says, “Caesar did this”, “Caesar fought this battle”, “Caesar won an amazing war”, and you just sit reading it and think, “that's you!” which I really enjoy.

Dictatorial Dialogues

To be honest, I got a bit carried away with the rule of three here, again, this is Cicero influencing me. I've put in “dictatorial dialogues” mainly because I felt like I needed to put the word dictator in, as Caesar was dictator for life, and that is a big part of the reason that he was assassinated in 44 BC.

But I do think, especially as a British person. that Caesar on the whole is so important. He is the person who tried, and actually failed, to conquer Britain for the first time. He gives us a really interesting insight into the Druids, and the shape of Britain, and what Romans thought about this tiny little island, way out of their empire, that eventually would become a tiny province on the far reaches. And he was the first one to try and conquer Britain!

For me, I think Caesar is fabulous to study as an historical figure, and his narratives are so interesting. So Caesar is on my list.

4. Tacitus

Now some people don't like Tacitus, but I really do, mainly because of the subject matter that his books cover, but also his literary style is so comforting.

Analytical Annals

He wrote the Annals, the Histories of Rome, and they are analytical in a way. People say they're quite biased, and yes of course they are. Every writer is biased.

But Tacitus especially makes me very happy because he wrote about absolute intrigue in the palace.

Imperial Intrigue

Such scandal! Such horrendous stories that he writes! His accounts of what the emperors get up to (especially Nero for example) are incredible.

Assassinations, murder plots, affairs, incest, anything you want, you name it, and Tacitus will have written about it. I have a really soft spot in my heart for Tacitus because he was my A level set text, but I do think he's worth it if you do go and have a chance to read some Tacitus.

Historic Hysteria

Make sure you pick a good book because he really gets across the hysteria that can go on when absolute power goes to people's heads.

5. Ovid

I couldn't get away without mentioning one of the romance poets, so I'm going to talk about Ovid!

Risqué Romance

He's definitely in this category. He pushed the boundaries of what it was acceptable to write about. He basically gave a cheat sheet on how to pick up women at public events.

Amorous Art

Ovid says you should definitely have affairs. He gives tips on how you should get out of people's houses when their husband re enters and how to draw people away from their spouses. He is constantly looking for, or trying to get away from, a girlfriend.

Now this is all at a time when the Emperor was trying to bring in morality laws and stop people doing things like this. So the Emperor Augustus actually banished Ovid, and Ovid mentions that he was banished for “a poem and an error”. People have said that this may have been his ars amatoria, which is his amorous art, “the art of being a lover”. And therefore he's possibly banished for these very scandalous ideas that he has on how he might pick up women, and how to get away with it.

In modern culture, we consider Ovid to sometimes be quite problematic with the things that he says, but you can't forget that in Rome, he was actively being problematic. He was being problematic for the emperor, and that is why he was banished.

Iliadic Imaginings

He also wrote the heroides, which are beautiful poems. They are from the point of view of heroines of Greek and Roman myths and legends which is very unusual in Roman texts. They address the heroes of the tales, and explain how the women felt about various events that the men are so proud of. They are really interesting to read if you get a chance.

So I do really like Ovid and I think he should be in here in one of my top five revolutionary Roman writers.

Who have I missed?

These are my five, but I'm really interested to know who yours are! If you have any ideas, if you think it is scandalous that I have missed someone out, or you think one of those definitely shouldn't be on there, then let me know!

I'll see you next time on bambasbat!